What Costs Are Included Or Excluded In An IVF Cycle

Identifying IVF cycle fees

When comparing clinics, patients should know what each charges for of an IVF cycle but it is complicated to forecast the cost because a cycle can progress in a variety of different ways. More significantly, different clinics have different philosophies on what they choose to include in their IVF cycle costs and what additional items they say patients can, or must, add. The total cost can end up being hugely different from the cycle price initially advertised.

Here at Concept, our philosophy is to keep things simple; we rarely advise patients to take any add-ons because we think they are often not necessary, not proven, or are unlikely to improve the final result. We appreciate that patients, after a failed cycle elsewhere, often want to know what else they can do to improve their chances but often the best advice is to understand the statistics and try another simple cycle, rather than pay for a selection of expensive, irrelevant, extras. This allows us to give a reasonably accurate forecast of the total cost of an IVF cycle at Concept.

The bold items in our “included” list below are the items that some clinics may charge for in addition to the cycle fee. The bold items in the “excluded” list are ones which we almost always charge for in addition to our cycle fee. Note that the “excluded” list is not exhaustive and other clinics may add a variety of additional chargeable items.

What is the definition of a “cycle”?

It is important to know this when looking at costs because anything outwith a cycle is usually charged as an additional item. A cycle starts on “day 1” which is when menstruation starts, and lasts until the day of embryo/blastocyst transfer (or the day eggs or embryos are frozen, or the cycle abandoned). Freezing and storing sperm, eggs or embryos always bears an additional cost.